Page:Worksofrightrevb00strauoft.djvu/34

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tions in Edinburgh, where affairs of vital importance soon absorbed his whole attention.

By the destruction of the Scotch Missionary Colleges on the Continent, the prospect of future labourers in the ministry was destroyed. This calamity was deeply felt by Bishop Hay, but it did not shake his confidence in God. With his usual energy he applied himself to remedy the evil, and though possessed of very slender means, began to build a new Seminary at Aquhorties. Thither, on its completion in 1799, he removed the students from Scalan, and laid the foundation of an establishment which afterwards supplied Scotland with many distinguished priests.

All hope of the recover}' of Bishop Geddes being now at an end, Dr Hay was obliged to nominate another coadjutor, and after mature deliberation he made choice of the Rev. Alexander Cameron. From personal acquaintance with this gentleman, he had formed a high idea of his virtue and talents; and that idea had been confirmed by the ability which Mr Cameron had displayed in the government of the Scotch College in Spain. The appointment gave general satisfaction, and Dr Hay applied to Rome for the Papal Briefs. On the 13th of August 1797 he informed Mr Cameron himself of his promotion, conjuring him to hasten to his assistance, and to relieve him of a burden which he was no longer able to support. The distracted state of the Continent, however, prevented Bishop Cameron, for a considerable time, from undertaking his journey; but at length, tranquillity being restored by the peace of Amiens, he embarked for Scotland.

On the 20th of August 1802, Mr Cameron arrived in Edinburgh; and Bishop Hay, following the example of his predecessor, Bishop Grant, immediately imparted to him complete faculties to govern the Vicariate. It was, indeed, his